


The Toy Soldier's Interlude

by advanced_fanatic



Series: Bungou Stray Archives [9]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs
Genre: Dehumanization, Gen, Identity Issues, Implied/Referenced Torture, Loss of Identity, Lucy Maud Montgomery (Bungou Stray Dogs) Is The Only Competent Person Here, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, She regrets everything, a fact she is distinctly aware of, and i mean skinning and remaking a man is definitely something she should regret, and is trying to get tachihara's brother to take advantage of it too, and she knows it, but seriously, everything, in his own violent way, lucy is so done, she is also the only person aware it's possible to rebel against the circus, she is surrounded by idiots, she is the only competent person running the circus, she runs the circus, sooooooo done, tachihara is also competent, which she takes full and complete advantage of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26360125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/advanced_fanatic/pseuds/advanced_fanatic
Summary: The Toy Soldier wonders where it's seen Tachihara Michizou before, while Lucy uses every trick in the book to get a Stranger avatar that is actually capable of being friends with her.
Relationships: Akutagawa Ryuunosuke & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Izumi Kyouka & Lucy Maud Montgomery & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Lucy Maud Montgomery & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Lucy Maud Montgomery & Tachihara Michizou's Brother, Tachihara Michizou & Tachihara Michizou's Brother
Series: Bungou Stray Archives [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740364
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	The Toy Soldier's Interlude

The thing about being remade was that it was very hard to keep pieces of yourself hidden. The Toy Soldier knew this, and its mistress knew this, and both of them were aware that the other had something it kept close to its heart.

The Toy Soldier knew that its mistress also preferred to be called “she”, but only outside of the wax museum. When Lucy Maud Montgomery commanded the circus, it was a mannequin, nothing human, something that would have made the man the Toy Soldier used to be quail in fear. It still felt terror at its mistress’s performance, but it was an expected terror, almost a courtesy, rather than some new, previously unimagined thrill of horror.

But the Toy Soldier had seen its mistress outside of the Circus and the wax museum. It had seen Lucy as a she, with a Hunt avatar and two Slaughter avatars, play-fighting them and laughing with them, like a group of siblings. Siblings...

One of the Slaughter avatars was a short girl with dark hair, and for some reason the Toy Soldier’s mind (such as it was) kept overlaying the image of another girl, small and dark-haired, but the other girl’s hair was short and pinned back with a butterfly clip, while this girl’s was long and in two pigtails. The other girl wore a maid’s dress and wore fear and anger like a cloak, while the Slaughter avatar was laughing with the joy of the fight. And the other Slaughter avatar, whirling against the Hunt one, grim with black determination, as the Hunt avatar laughed.  _ Brothers _ , thought the Toy Soldier.  _ Brothers, brothers _ . Why was it so fascinated by the idea of brothers?

The thing about being remade was that it was very hard to keep pieces of yourself hidden, and yet the Toy Soldier’s mistress had done so. It knew that nobody else in the Circus knew of these avatars, or how Lucy was a she with them. It knew that something was so, so familiar about the bonds between them ( _ siblings siblings siblings _ ) and yet those bonds were not its own.

It knew the Hunt avatar and the girl Slaughter avatar were Eye-touched, close so close to the Archivist. Assistants, probably, and it knew Assistants were dangerous. It had watched as another Assistant (red hair but  _ deeply _ familiar) got into the circus and destroyed its skin, the skin it had had originally, from back before it was the Toy Soldier (was it ever something before the Toy Soldier?). The Toy Soldier had stayed still as the Assistant slashed its skin to pieces. It waited until he stepped back, breathing heavily, wiping at his face as water came out of his eyes and off his forehead. Then it stepped forward, sawdust falling from its crevices, over the tattered remnants of its skin.

The Assistant had stared at it, eyes wide with fear and horror and something...else, but turned and bolted when the Toy Soldier drew its sword.

Good. 

The Toy Soldier hadn’t wanted to harm the Assistant. It wasn’t sure why, but the idea of it filled it with revulsion. Luckily, it didn’t have to; when Lucy came in, shaking fog out of its skirts and looking severely annoyed, it demanded an explanation from the Toy Soldier, and when it told it everything that had happened, Lucy shook its head and started collecting pieces of skin.

“Of course you couldn’t hurt him,” it snapped, sounding annoyed. “This is the same reason Atsushi was able to safely navigate the Distortion’s hallways--I’m assuming you don’t  _ know _ why you couldn’t hurt him?”

The Toy Soldier blinked at it. “I was afraid,” it said. “He was an Archival Assistant. He destroyed my first skin. I was afraid.”

“Your first skin is important,” said Lucy. It sat back and looked at it, something deeply sad in its eyes. “It connects you to the person you were before. You can still hold on, of course, but it will be harder.”

“I thought I was not supposed to hold on to who I was before,” the Toy Soldier said, confused.

“Of course not,” Lucy snapped. “I never said anything like that, at all.” It leaned forward, though, so that they were almost nose to nose. “The Assistant’s name is Tachihara Michizou,” she hissed. “He believes we killed and skinned his brother.”

“Then why did he attack  _ my _ skin?” the Toy Soldier asked plaintively.

Lucy scoffed and tossed its braids back. “Take it up with Yosano Akiko,” she said.

“Who?” 

Lucy rolled its eyes again. “Avatar of the End. Ally to the Archivist, former Assistant. She and her associate know everything there is to know about everything...although I have no reason to believe she knows about  _ you _ .” It tapped the Toy Soldier where its nose should have been, had it had a skin. “I’m going to see if I can fix this skin up for you. You’re  _ my _ doll, and no Archival Assistant is allowed to break you!”

It snatched up the last bits of skin before marching off, pausing in the doorway.

“See if there’s a way to keep your sawdust together,” Lucy added. “I don’t want you spilling out before we can get you a new skin. I’ll see if you can keep that lovely angel pattern, too. I know it was important to you.”

Then it vanished through the door.

_ Tachihara Michizou _ ...the Toy Soldier wondered why its mistress had given it the name. She hadn’t ordered it to exact revenge on him. Instead, she had handed it that name like a gift, like something it needed to hold onto, and the name did feel familiar, just like watching the avatars chase each other around in the forest had.  _ Brothers _ , it had thought, watching them. It was funny how  _ brother _ sounded so much like  _ Tachihara Michizou _ .

Its mistress had given it another name, too.  _ Yosano Akiko _ , for answers. An avatar of the End. An avatar that, unless it was very much mistaken was both allied with and more powerful than its mistress, due to the inevitability of the end. After it had first become the Toy Soldier, Lucy had sat it down and drilled the politics of the Entities and avatars into its head. It had finished that up with something similarly mysterious to what it had said now:  _ you might want to share this information with anyone idiotic enough to come after us--for example, a little boy in an opera house _ . 

It didn’t know why, but the image of the boy in the opera house had stuck with it. Such a small boy, black hair falling into his eyes, screaming his brother’s name--and the brother unable to speak, thinking,  _ Michizou--no--Tachihara Michizou, get out of here, now _ !

_ The Assistant’s name is Tachihara Michizou. He believes we killed and skinned his brother. _

The boy in the opera house, then, was Tachihara Michizou. He was the one the Toy Soldier’s mistress had wanted it to share the knowledge of the Entities with. Had it succeeded in doing so? Tachihara Michizou clearly knew what he was doing. He was an Archival Assistant, and one talented enough to sneak into the Circus and shred the Toy Soldier’s skin. And if the Toy Soldier could remember the boy in the opera house, it must have been there too.

That was one mystery solved, and another! Tachihara Michizou must have blamed the Toy Soldier for the death of his brother, so he had shredded its skin in revenge! It hated the fact that its skin was destroyed, but for some reason was unable to hold anything against Tachihara Michizou. And it hadn’t even had to go to the avatar of the End to figure it out. Now all it had to do was present its findings to its mistress. It would be so proud!

“You’re a fucking idiot,” Lucy huffed. “But I guess that’s kind of my fault, and anyway, you’re  _ my _ fucking idiot, so I guess you can’t really do anything that I don’t command you to. But if you ever  _ do _ want answers that, like, are actually real, Yosano Akiko and her companion know everything about everything.”

“Are you ordering me to go ask her?” the Toy Soldier asked.

“Of course not,” Lucy snapped, its hands on its hips. “That would go directly against the wishes of the Circus, and moreover would put all of us in danger. However. I cannot keep an eye on you 24/7.”

It just stared at Lucy, confused, who groaned and started slamming its head against the wall. “You. Are. A. Fucking. Idiot.” With each word, its head made a whacking cracking noise. The Toy Soldier watched as paint flicked off of its mistress’s forehead, and when Lucy finally turned to face it there was a long crack down its face. “Your skin is all repaired, right? The silk isn’t too uncomfortable?”

“It’s good,” the Toy Soldier said, confused and worried. “Your face…”

Lucy waved its hand. “I’ll repair it. I’m going to be out for a while. Do with that information what you will.” 

It turned on its heel and marched away.

Some time later, Lucy returned. 

“What did you do while I was gone?” it asked, raising an eyebrow at the Toy Soldier.

“Waited for you to get back,” it replied.

Lucy stepped out of the room, slammed its head against the wall, and screamed.


End file.
